No, plug doors cannot be opened during flight. Nor can emergency exits.

Yeah. Just reading up on it. So, these facts adjust the speculative causal scenarios...either some form of mechanical failure, or an act of
terrorism? The radio silence and the lack of a distress call would seem to rule out mechanical failure.

A 737 or Airbus can fly easily with one engine inoperative even at gross weight, hot and high environment. Crews train for this and aircraft are
certified for it. As for aircraft flying with a wing missing, the become a lawn dart no control what so ever. Plane is no longer controllable at
all.

Yes, you should at some point, but if you're flying along, at the point where the human body is normally at its lowest (as this flight was),
and suddenly, let's say, the side of your plane blows out, even a trained pilot is going to have a moment of panic as they try to figure out what just
happened. Then they're going to get so busy trying to solve the problem and before you know it, it's too late.

I would think that the earlier reports of bodies found to be a sure sign of the crash site, but...meh.. I guess officials need more to give a
statement.

Reference Bodies or Body Parts, and luggage for that matter, lets not forget, this is the Mediterranean. Lots of people trying to cross it at the
moment and for quite a time previously too now, there have been lots of people who have drowned when boats have capsized, lots of people!

So .... is what they found from the refugee crisis / people smuggler crisis or from a plane crash?

Seems to me something would have had to happen pretty quickly to the aircraft for the pilot not to signal mayday.

Greek controllers had talked to the pilot at 2:48 a.m. local time in Greece (1:48 a.m. in Paris and Cairo), when the plane was near a Greek
island, and all had been well. But at 3:27 a.m. local time (2:27 a.m. in Paris and Cairo), controllers tried to reach the pilots to transfer control
to Cairo authorities and received no response. The plane passed into Egyptian airspace two minutes later, then its signal dropped from radar 13
kilometers (8 miles) south-southeast of Kumbi, an aviation reporting point in the Mediterranean. What happened to the EgyptAir flight? The aircraft
was cruising at 37,000 feet, considered the safest part of the flight, in clear, calm weather conditions. Then, upon entering Egypt's airspace, the
aircraft swerved then plunged dramatically, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos told reporters in Athens. "At 3:37 a.m. local time, immediately
after the aircraft entered Cairo airspace at 37,000 feet, the aircraft swerved 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right, and descended from
37,000 feet to 15,000 feet and then 10,000 feet when we lost the signal," he
said.

A distress signal was detected at 4:26 a.m. -- almost two hours after the jet vanished -- in the general vicinity where it disappeared, said
EgyptAir Vice President Ahmed Adel. He said the distress signal could have come from another vessel in the Mediterranean. Egyptian armed forces said
they had not received a distress call. A distress call is how a plane signals there is an emergency -- and doesn't have to be a pilot alerting
authorities with a "Mayday" call.

Considering they dove 22,000 feet that fast, I'd have to say it was something catastrophic. But that still doesn't necessarily mean terrorism had to
cause it. An Aloha 243, with an improper reaction by the crew, or a slow depressurization followed by a fuselage blow out could have caused the same
reaction.

No one has reported, and I have yet to see, any report of the horizontal radius in which the alleged 90 degree and 360 degree turns took place, nor
how close they were together...nor the altitudes/descent rates before during or after these turns. Much of the media is spouting off about these
turns like they were controlled turns. They may just be one series of simultaneous events taking place with an aircraft completely out of control.

Of course, terrorism aside, the complete loss of a horizontal stabilizer coupled with the slightest bank angle could result in a graveyard spiral.

Just a thought, i think its about time the pilots had cameras on the outside of commercial aircraft, maybe 2 facing forward and 2 facing backward,
they can then see in real-time exactly what has happened externally. These cameras should also link up with the flight recorder to be recorded with
all the telemetry giving investigators all full picture of what happened.

The flight recorders should also be made to be ejected in water and float on the surface, and also have a locater signal that lasts longer than 30
days.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
About mid-day yesterday there was an article about a US (unnamed of course) "intelligence official" who stated there were some "infrared" and other
(spectral) images which indicated a fireball in the area at the time of the disappearance. I can't find those stories now, and I guess that's the
point...what happened to them? Or was this an intelligence slip with some classified info?

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.